Academic Job Search Pointers

After many, many years of apprenticeship, the journeyman prepares to strike out on her own, to establish her own fortress (or perhaps a nice tower room) within one of the many castles dotting the land of Academia.

But first there's that minor nuisance of a hazing ritual called the Academic Job Search.

Now, Anomie's apprenticeship has not quite finished, for - alas- it will not be until this time next year that she is engaged in such lovely tasks as obsessively perusing job boards and shamelessly selling her academic self to prospective institutions. (Although Anomie is aiming for an academic institution, she does secretly fear the harrowing process might land her in a mental one instead. Or worse, that she will get out there and find she can't tell the difference between the two).

However, there is help for the prospective traveler who fears becoming hopelessly wayward. Guidance can come in the form of blog posts, for example. With any luck, one can ride on the coattails of those journeymen a few steps ahead of oneself, and gain insights from watching their own hazing (just don't watch with too much open glee, for such blatant schadenfreude has a way of biting you in the ass later).

Another excellent source of advice is career workshops at conferences. Hailing from Ball State University, Melinda Messineo presided over a panel workshop on the academic job hunt at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting last month. Though it could have been a disaster quite easily (BOTH her co-panelists had very legitimate reasons for not being there), the panel of one was still among the best and most fruitful of the official ASA events I attended. It was an hour and forty-five minutes of jam-packed advice. Here are the highlights:

SELF-REFLECTION

Coming from a R1 institution (as many of us in PhD programs are), there is often a lot of expectation and pressure to follow in the footsteps of your professors and also go to a research institution. If you want that, that's great. However, it is important to ask yourself, "Is it the momentum of the academic process that is pushing you toward a research 1 institution, or is this really something you want to take on?"

Ultimately, it is your career to lead, so it is important to identify early on what you really want.

Some key questions to ask yourself:

*What attracted you to the discipline in the first place?
*What do you want in your life?
*Are there other things you want to dedicate time for?
*Do you want to work primarily with grad students or undergraduates?
*What about your ideal class size? Department size?
*Are you interested in getting into administration?

There are generally three types of institutions to choose from, distinguished largely by their varying emphasis on research versus teaching: First is the R1, which will have more of a research emphasis; second is the liberal arts college, will have a more heavy teaching emphasis; and finally there's the comprehensive university (often a state school), which will be more balanced. The way you present yourself to prospective employers will vary depending on the type of institution. And if you're really working it, each application will be specifically tailored to that school. To some extent the "choice" is determined by your CV, since different institutions are looking for different things. You'll have a hard time getting a job at a teaching institution if you never taught, and you'll have a hard time getting a job in a research institution if you've never published.

CURRICULUM VITAE AND APPLICATION LETTER

The CV and letter should showcase your skills and achievements in three main areas: research, teaching, and service. The CV and letter should balance one another. Some schools only read the CV first; some only read the letter first. As such, it is a good idea to have both work as stand-alone documents. Your letter should sound confident but not arrogant. It should be personalized to the institution.

These three main sections (research, teaching, service) will vary in positioning depending upon what your target department is most interested in seeing. For the comprehensive university, which has equal emphasis, place your research first (I think that's a slight nod to the general belief that research has a higher status than teaching). The letter will have an additional section in which you explain your fit within that particular school. The CV will have an additional section in which you list your honors and awards (although you might mention particularly noteworthy ones in the letter as well).

ALERT: The bar is escalating regarding what it takes to get hired anywhere. Regardless of where you're applying, teaching experience is now expected. At least a bit, perhaps as a TA, even if you're going to an R1. Also, at least one publication is now expected, at least somewhere, even if you're going to a liberal arts college. Beyond that baseline, it is best to emphasize whichever facet reflects the type of institution to which you are applying.

Here's some advice that was new to me: when Messineo talked about the CV that you send out to prospective institutions, she talked about a much more in-depth CV than I have seen. It makes sense that the CV for the job market might be different than the CV you publish on your website, but it was not anything I had heard before. For example, she talked about including some data from your course evals in the CV under the section for each course. Also, she mentioned including an abstract of your dissertation in the CV itself. I'd be interested to hear how common such inclusions are, and if it varies depending on the type of institution you're applying to.

Another thing I hadn't heard before: Many of us are already aware that it's a bad idea to include your R&R's under your "Publications" heading in your CV. However, did you know that there's good reason to also limit your "Works in Progress" list to just R&R's and things that are *just* about to go out the door? Apparently, these publications might not count toward tenure at some institutions, since it is something you started before you got there. However, I also have heard that some institutions will count previous publications toward your tenure count. It probably varies by institution.

It is also helpful to have a professional website to send people to for further information. And, of course, be conscious of your web presence. As so well put by Messineo, "Do you remember that picture you had taken of you at that party, and your friends posted it on Facebook? Um.....I'm probably gonna see it." How professional you appear is going to make a difference.

For further information, great curriculum vitae advice can also be found here, here, and here.

TEACHING PORTFOLIO

Start this as a grad student, when you get your first teaching gig. You may not need it during the hiring process, but you will need it for tenure, and it is beneficial to have evidence of how your teaching has evolved since that first timid class back in grad school. This is a critical way to demonstrate growth as an instructor. While good teaching won't get you a job (or tenure), bad teaching may prevent it. You should have:

*a teaching philosophy
*learning objectives for your courses
*graphs of numerical data are nice (from evaluations)
*a selection of quotes from student evaluations
*a statement to the effect that "all comments are available upon request," which shows that you are not trying to hide anything
*midterm evaluations indicate that you are taking an extra step in your teaching

PHONE INTERVIEWS

The most important thing to keep in mind here is that any telephone communication with the prospective institution is an interview, even if they tell you it isn't. If you are on the job market, DON'T answer the phone while you are in the car, at a party, etc. if you don't recognize the number. For your scheduled telephone interview:

*Dress in interview clothes. They probably won't be doing a video chat, but just wearing the clothes puts you in the correct frame of mind.
*Have note cards ready, with key points you want to make, questions to ask, and answers to questions you think they will ask
*Have questions to ask
*Be at the computer if possible. Have a page open to the department's website. Have another page (or pages) open to the interviewer(s) personal homepage(s).
*Be authentic

Lots of people had many great questions during the course of the workshop. Perhaps I'll post some of them, with their answers, later. Unfortunately, this meant we ran out of time during the panel to get too much information about the on-campus interviews and negotiating the job offer, except (1) be authentic; you want a job where you'll fit in, so if you're gonna put the piercings right back in after you're hired, don't take them out in the first place, and (2) negotiate your salary; this is one of the few chances you get to do so. Don't forget things like start-up packages, moving finds, 1st year set-up money, computer and software needs.

And send a thank-you email to the interviewers.

If any readers have additional advice, I'd love to hear it.